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Created by: Joan Ogwumike, Principle Gifts, Prospect Research Analyst, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Founding Principal, Jstrategies

Apra-IL presents 50 Shades of Prospect Development; a series of illustrations that seek to provide a visual depiction of the complexities in all aspects of the Prospect Development field. Each colorful image will represent the emotional ups and downs, moments of pride, successful projects and relationships, conflicts with our co-workers/technology/work-life balance, and/or opportunities for growth we find in our careers.

In any field, your journey may feel like a never-ending trek up-hill as you grow, advocate, and demand equality and equity in your field. In Prospect Development, we face these issues and more (as illustrated above).

Above, we spotlight just a few of the obstacles PD professionals face in their journey to the top. What have you overcome to get where you are today? Share with us below!

Created by: Joan Ogwumike, Principle Gifts, Prospect Research Analyst, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Founding Principal, Jstrategies

Apra-IL presents 50 Shades of Prospect Development; a series of illustrations that seek to provide a visual depiction of the complexities in all aspects of the Prospect Development field. Each colorful image will represent the emotional ups and downs, moments of pride, successful projects and relationships, conflicts with our co-workers/technology/work-life balance, and/or opportunities for growth we find in our careers.

The field of Prospect Development, in name is still growing; but in theory, it has supported and made great impact on different areas in Development/Fundraising for decades. From the Development Generalist, who wears many hats, to the External Affairs Manager who works to prioritize outreach with curated lists from Research, to the Executive Director at a nonprofit who uses analytics and research to drive the mission - all the fields or offices represented, and more have in some way utilized the skills of Prospect Development professionals. And Apra-IL recognizes your consistent impact.

Apra-IL is asking local and national industry leaders what the field means to them and why and how they have pursued success in prospect development. Through this blog series, we will explore what drives industry leaders to propel their careers and prospect development forward.

For this month's piece, Joan Ogwumike, Apra-IL member and volunteer, interviews Mallory Lass, Assistant Director, Prospect Research at the University of California Berkeley.

Mallory Lass is Assistant Director, Prospect Management at UC Berkeley, where she also supports regional fundraising efforts in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, and the Vice Chancellor for Research Office. Mallory works with her fundraising clients to provide comprehensive prospect management, prospect research, and data analytics services. Mallory started in prospect research as a student worker at UC Santa Barbara and was able to embark on a career in the industry after graduation. She returned to Prospect Development after she took a career detour as an estate planning attorney, where she was also involved on many community boards. Mallory joined the board of CARA (California Advancement Research Association) in 2014 as the Northern California Regional Chair. She is the immediate past President and current Communications Chair.

To stay in touch with Mallory, follow her on Twitter @datalover916

Apra-IL: Two-part question: Why Prospect Development? And what has kept you motivated?

Lass: I actually got involved in fundraising as a student. I attended UCSB and was looking for a student job and saw a posting that basically said computer proficient, so I applied. It ended up being in Prospect Development, and it opened up my world a lot. I took a detour to law school and practiced Estate Planning for a few years; in part because of the inspiration I had from fundraising and advancement to help people realize their goals. Ultimately, I was called back to the world of Prospect Development and have always been in Higher Ed because public education is my passion. Literacy and access to education are really important to me, so the students keep me going. The seemingly never-ending slew of world problems we have yet to solve are also a source of motivation. I know I am doing work that has wide-reaching effects, which will ultimately touch thousands of people. I don’t think everyone gets to say that about their job. It really is mission driven work for me. I find it intellectually stimulating even though it can also can be quite theoretical.

Apra-IL: What role has Apra/Cara played in your professional journey?

Lass: I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today without the Apra/CARA community. I remember, even back when I was a student worker, the woman who ran our prospect management program at the time attended Apra and came back full of new ideas. It sounded exciting, and I remember how nice she said everyone was, and that has always been my experience with the community; so willing to help and share information. As a life-long learner, professional development is something I am really passionate about. More than that, I think these organizations create a space to build community. Even though it seems like it sometimes, we don’t operate in a vacuum. We have peer institutions, parallel and intersecting missions, etc. and there is something really comforting in that. As our community grows and becomes more vibrant, there is no better place to be than in the mix at Apra PD or a CARA conference and seeing everyone so engaged and genuinely happy.

Apra-IL: Could you tell us one perception people have about professionals in Prospect Development? What's the truth?

Lass: I know there are stories about encounters with people in the outside world who have some perception of Prospect Development, but I would say for the most part, people have no idea that this is even a profession, nor what the day-to-day work is like. From early on, when I first got into this industry as a student, I created a little elevator pitch about what I did. The elevator pitch of my youth was certainly full of more snark and even some cringe-worthy language. But I have spent a lot of time now educating the general public/friends/family about philanthropy, even if it is with more professional language and the short pitch works. I can always go into more detail if people are interested. I continue to discuss the importance of private support for public education, the importance of supporting organizations and causes whose mission aligns with your own values, etc.

I think from within other areas of advancement, people are not always sure what we do over in prospect development. So, it is a little bit about demystifying our processes. Doing proactive education is a big help. There is no magic box, we work really hard to gather and analyze data and provide key insights into our strategies and prospects.

Apra-IL: Fill in the blank with a piece of advice you wish you had received in your first Prospect Development role: When in doubt, ___________.

Lass: When in doubt eat ice cream.

Everything we do (okay, mostly everything we do) is important, or can be traced to an important outcome. That said, sometimes we can take ourselves too seriously. When I get stuck on a problem, a prospect research request, a data project, have a challenging meeting, etc. the best thing for me to do is take a break and stop thinking so hard about it. Most of the time, the problem will still be there when you get back. For me, my happy place is eating ice cream, so I either grab some co-workers to join me, or just go it alone. I have been known to “schedule” ice cream related meetings into my calendar when I know I have a ton of non-ice cream related meetings, or a big deadline. The real advice here is give yourself and the people around you a break. Our work is important, but nothing is worth an ulcer. Okay, the real, real advice is to eat more ice cream!

Apra-IL is asking local and national industry leaders what the field means to them and why and how they have pursued success in prospect development. Through this blog series, we will explore what drives industry leaders to propel their careers and prospect development forward.

For this month's piece, Joan Ogwumike, Apra-IL member and volunteer, interviews Kevin MacDonell, Acting Executive Director, Advancement Operations for the Advancement Department of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Kevin MacDonell is Acting Executive Director, Advancement Operations for the Advancement Department of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Formerly a journalist and editor, he entered higher education advancement in 2003 as a communications writer and later moved on to prospect research, annual giving (phonathon), and business intelligence. Along the way, he pursued an interest in data analysis, data mining and predictive modeling and applies these techniques to support all areas of university advancement. He launched the CoolData blog (cooldata.org) in 2009, focused on promoting the learning of predictive modeling techniques for professionals working in advancement and other nonprofit organizations. He has given many conference presentations on these topics, and in 2014 he was co-author (with consultant Peter Wylie) of a book published by CASE called “Score!: Data-Driven Success for Your Advancement Team.” Most recently, he published a how-to guide for predictive modelling as a free download from CoolData.org.

Apra-IL: Describe your motivations to build your career in Prospect Development, and what keeps you engaged?

MacDonell: My career has not been focused solely on Prospect Development, but it is fair to say that it has always revolved around it. I was a prospect researcher for seven years with responsibility for what, at the time, I didn’t know to call prospect management. Later, I worked in Annual Fund, data analysis, and managing teams in Operations (a.k.a. Advancement Services). None of those roles was really separate from Prospect Development, in the big picture: Annual Fund is part of a process that should identify key donors early and engage them appropriately; my data analysis work was in support of the same process, and Advancement Services professionals should be focused on supporting the smooth working of the “pipeline,” in its broadest sense.

My path through Advancement hasn’t been an outcome of a career built according to plan. I have moved from opportunity to opportunity. But the common thread is the satisfaction I receive from mobilizing data and information to enable leadership and frontline staff make decisions and support strategy. I’ve enjoyed learning new things, working on interesting problems with other people, and being useful in general. That has spilled over into my blog, the book I co-wrote with Peter Wylie, and the new (free) book I’ve just self-published.

Of course, those traits are true of anyone who enjoys coming to work each day, but the best people have those in spades. They are all intrinsic rewards of work. Nowadays, part of my role is to hire for that orientation toward intrinsic rewards, among other traits (including being smarter than I am).

Apra-IL: In your career, what has been your biggest challenge or lesson?

MacDonell: My biggest challenge was negotiating the transition to managing a team when all my previous experience related to hands-on work. This is a common problem - I’ve seen other new managers struggle with it - and I think it’s especially true for knowledge workers who may be managing a team but still have all the tools of the trade right there on their desktop. It took a while to feel right about letting go of things I once enjoyed, such as doing data analysis. It is possible to retain some elements of hands-on work, but I found that I couldn’t work on a priority project without becoming a bottleneck to progress. In roles I’ve had in recent years, holding on to any of that would drain energy from where it’s really needed: ensuring I understand where the frontline part of the organization is going, and being out ahead of it to support it, and proactively plan.

Apra-IL: In three words, describe the role of a Prospect Development Professional.

MacDonell: Collaborative. Empowered. Engaged.

Apra-IL: Please share a piece of advice with our readers you gained through a professional development opportunity.

MacDonell: I’ve attended many Apra conferences and sessions as an attendee and speaker, so professional development from Apra has shaped my view of Advancement in important ways. However, having seen prospect development from various angles, my advice to experienced people in the field is not to limit your view to what’s going on in Prospect Development to the exclusion of awareness of the strategic direction your department or organization is taking. I think of Apra as being forward-facing and in the vanguard of developments in the field, but we have to acknowledge that as much as we crave appreciation and respect from Advancement leaders, Prospect Development professionals are in service to their organization’s strategy. We may have had a hand in developing that strategy, but ultimately, strategy is developed by the organization’s leadership.

It’s analogous to something I like to say about an area I feel affinity with: data analysis and business intelligence. I have stopped using the term “data-driven decision making” in favour of “data-informed” or “evidence-based” decision making. Data doesn’t “drive” decisions, it “informs” them. Advancement leaders need to, well, lead – that is, chart a course. Analysts supply some of the tools, information, and advice to keep the ship on course. So it is with Prospect Development. A high profile for the people doing the work is important, but it is equally important for those folks to understand and support the strategy, and plug into it in proactive, effective ways – rather than seek to bend the organization to their concept of best practice. Prospect Development can show leadership where strategy is lacking, but otherwise it’s best to be in tune with the overall plan.

Created by: Joan Ogwumike, Principle Gifts, Prospect Research Analyst, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Founding Principal, Jstrategies

Apra-IL presents 50 Shades of Prospect Development; a series of illustrations that seek to provide a visual depiction of the complexities in all aspects of the Prospect Development field. Each colorful image will represent the emotional ups and downs, moments of pride, successful projects and relationships, conflicts with our co-workers/technology/work-life balance, and/or opportunities for growth we find in our careers.

There are issues with communication in every field. Understandably, Prospect Development has an issue with overcoming these one-way communication hurdles. We face obstacles when advocating for professional development, balancing our work and life, and a lack of respect for our work and voice. These burdens can begin to feel too heavy when carried alone. Apra-IL is here for you! We serve as a community of like-minded professionals always willing to meet up, reach out, and assist when asked.

Have you faced any of the above scenarios? How did you overcome? How can Apra-IL help? Let us know in the comments below.

Created by: Joan Ogwumike, Principle Gifts, Prospect Research Analyst, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Founding Principal, Jstrategies

Apra-IL presents 50 Shades of Prospect Development; a series of illustrations that seek to provide a visual depiction of the complexities in all aspects of the Prospect Development field. Each colorful image will represent the emotional ups and downs, moments of pride, successful projects and relationships, conflicts with our co-workers/technology/work-life balance, and/or opportunities for growth we find in our careers.

As professionals in Prospect Development, we have opportunities to learn continuously through webinars, conversations with colleagues, and conferences. Through those resources, we are able to celebrate the creation and discovery of new resources, wrestle with changes in tax law, and analyse wealth/capacity calculation advancements. The above illustration shows how far we've come as a field. Throughout the history of the field, we've utilized new tech to store our records more efficiently, found new ways to work with our colleagues in libraries, and collaborated with vendors to build systems that (while often full of quirks and frustrations) surpass the wildest dreams we would've had 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

Take some time today to celebrate the advances we've made and the ways these technologies have changed the way in which we do our good work. Celebrate, also, the potential in our field. Can you see ways in which you and your colleagues are working to alter the path of Prospect Development? Share them with us!

What do you think the future of Prospect Development looks like? In what areas have you seen growth that you never could've dreamed of only years earlier? Do you think AI and robotics will someday take over our roles as researchers and strategists?

Apra-IL is asking local and national industry leaders what the field means to them and why and how they have pursued success in prospect development. Through this blog series, we will explore what drives industry leaders to propel their careers and prospect development forward.

For this month's piece, Joan Ogwumike, Apra-IL member and volunteer, interviews Jami Hougen Johnson, Director of Prospect Management at the University of Chicago.

Jami is the Director of Prospect Management at the University of Chicago. Previously, she was the program director of a workplace giving coalition that supported social change, environmental, and cultural causes in Iowa. At the University of Chicago, she leads a team of analysts that work with colleagues across Alumni Relations and Development (ARD) to develop prospect pools, improve portfolio management, build pipeline strength, analyze gift officer productivity, create prospect management policy, and implement fundraising strategies. The prospect management team is part of a larger decision support team that includes financial analysis and forecasting, and information engagement and education specialists.

She has presented at APRA International and APRA Illinois, and is hoping to present in the future on building out strong prospect lifecycle programs in higher education organizations. She received her BS in neuropsychology and certificate in nonprofit management from the University of Iowa and received a certificate in project management and is in the process of getting a MLA from the University of Chicago Graham School.

If hearing about any of the work at UChicago is interesting to you, contact Jami (jhougen@uchicago.edu) to learn more! The Prospect Management team is hiring and will be posting an analyst position in the next few weeks.

Apra-IL: Can you tell us what motivates you in your current field? Have your motivations have ever changed?

Hougen Johnson: I wanted to make a positive impact in the world through my career and nonprofits are like world-improving powerhouses. The people in these organizations are so dedicated to the cause, and in turn they help donors and prospective donors make an impact through their time and giving.

Higher education is something that is important to me, so my motivation there has never really changed – although I loved working with smaller social change organizations years ago. I’d say my motivations have changed when it comes to the different areas within a nonprofit. I’ve done frontline fundraising, database administration, some program development, and now prospect development. Challenge itself is motivating, so when I see a big gap in my knowledge I’m interested to move more in that direction.

Apra-IL: Describe your journey into your current position.

Hougen Johnson: I’ve heard people talk about how they “fell” into prospect development (and what a great career to fall into), but my journey was a little more direct. When I was an undergraduate, I wanted to work in the medical field and worked as part of a cancer research team and then in the heart transplant department. Both of these departments had wonderful nonprofits they worked closely with, and I got more involved. I was able to bring more analysis and data to these fundraising programs and was surprised at how much this insight impacted dollars raised. I focused on for-profit strategy for some time, but ultimately came back to nonprofits.

My first full-time nonprofit job was one of those where you get to where all the hats, and I mean all the hats. I learned a lot, but wanted an opportunity to become more specialized in my work. To get more specialization it helps to work in a larger nonprofit, so I saved up and moved to Chicago. When my friends asked what I wanted to do, I’d tell them I wanted to work on Michigan Avenue (it was the most opposite location from where I worked previously that I could think of) and have a chance to study what made people give some of the biggest gifts charity receive (again, opposite of the mostly annual fund program I ran previously). Believe it or not, I ended up working on Michigan Avenue working as a prospect management analyst focused on principal gifts.

Apra-IL: What advice would you give a new professional in the field of Prospect Development?

Hougen Johnson: Great question. I’ve been lucky to work with amazing people, and have gotten some excellent advice over the years.

1. Ask big picture questions.

Don’t limit your knowledge to just your role – even when you’re first starting out. What are the biggest challenges your organization faces? What is your organization trying to accomplish in the next 5, 10 years? How will fundraising impact the ability to achieve these goals? What are your organization’s key metrics? How does your work fit into these metrics? What are the biggest pain points your gift officers experience in their work? Tie what you learn about the greater organizational needs to your own work.

It can be easy to be a silo when working in prospect development. Understanding the big picture (and not just thinking short-term) will help you ask good questions and make your work more effective. Getting involved in professional organizations (like APRA IL!) is also a great way to understand the bigger picture, and learn about what other organizations are doing.

2. Study your impact.

UChicago’s prospect research, analytics, and prospect management teams recently did some cross-team interviews to better understand pain points and opportunities in our prospect development work. One common trend throughout these conversations was the desire to have a better understanding of prospect development’s impact on the organization. This wasn’t a surprising finding necessarily, but it did underscore the importance of taking the time to study your own work.

You can get feedback and reports from other people (and this should be part of reflecting on your work), but it is also important to track and understand your work yourself. Where are you adding value? One place to start is understanding how you might help increase funds and reduce cost. You might reduce costs by helping staff prioritize large groups of donors and prospective donors.

If you have some ideas for how you’re adding value, what actually is happening with your work? Keep a spreadsheet of prospects that scored highly on a model, you’ve identified, or you’ve assigned. Put it on your calendar to run a report on these names. Which prospects are giving? Which are being engaged? If nothing seems to be happening with some of these people, look at the data and think about what this is, and then reach out to your colleagues for feedback. Understanding your impact is an important motivator for work in general, but studying your work will also help you regularly improve.

3. Focus on your strengths.

Think back to mentors or people that you thought were excellent at what they did. They were probably good generally, but there was likely a handful of things they were particularly great at, right? When you’re first starting out you want to make sure you’re checking all the boxes, but pay attention to the work that draws you in. Take note and focus on that work whenever you can. Of course, you don’t want to ignore your weaknesses, but you can be “good enough” in some areas of your work, and then be great at a few.

I’m particularly fond of radar or spider charts for this (ask UChicago’s PM team, they are probably sick of these). Talk to your manager and colleagues about the skills that are most important to your job. Work with your manager to rate yourself on these skills so you can see any major areas to improve, and then work on the areas you want to get “pointy”. I’m not a fan of personality tests because I think they often put people in a box… but Strengthsfinders is a good tool if you’re looking for a place to start.

Apra-IL: #researchpride is a fun and meaningful hashtag that allows professionals in Prospect Development to reflect and share why they feel proud to be in the field. Can you share a moment in which you have felt proud to be in Prospect Development?

Hougen Johnson: First, can we get a #pmpride hashtag going too? Really though, I work with a brilliant team. They ask beautiful questions and are dedicated to finding answers. I’m regularly impressed, excited, and proud of the impact their questions (and answers!) have on our fundraising program. And when I think we’ve looked at all the data and there isn’t much more to review, we meet with gift officers and other teams and they ask questions that never crossed our minds. There is certainly an art to fundraising, but there is also a science and as a field we’ve seen a lot of changes to the different voices that are heard in organizational strategy conversations.

These conversations help us all think outside of the box about prospect development processes, portfolio management, how we engage donors and prospective donors … these improvements increase UChicago’s impact on people, our community, and the world. How can you not be proud of that?

Created by: Joan Ogwumike, Principle Gifts, Prospect Research Analyst, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Founding Principal, Jstrategies

Apra-IL presents 50 Shades of Prospect Development; a series of illustrations that seek provide a visual depiction of the complexities in all aspects of the Prospect Development field. Each colorful image will represent the emotional ups and downs, moments of pride, successful projects and relationships, conflicts with our co-workers/technology/work-life balance, and/or opportunities for growth we find in our careers.

For our first entry, I’ve created the big picture of Prospect Development shown broken into its composite pieces. Each vibrant puzzle piece represents an aspect of the field and how each area of PD needs one another. Together, they create a larger picture. I hope that you can identify your role(s) in the puzzle. Which piece stands out to you as a primary function of your role? Which piece is your organization lacking? Can Apra-IL help you grow in that area? Let us know by posting below!

It’s a new year and we've got new offerings for our members. Our organization has accomplished a great deal in 2017, but we look to 2018 to reach new heights and maintain this exemplary prospect development chapter for professionals in Illinois and the surrounding region.

As I begin my last year as your chapter President, I want to reaffirm the mission that I set out to create three years ago: to build a chapter that is self-sustaining, a source of expertise, and a place full of collaboration and camaraderie. Throughout my term, we have made great strides in these goals, but we still have work to do!

A consistent struggle for our chapter has been getting and retaining board volunteers. Just recently, we added three new board members (hurray!). Megan Humphrey has taken on the role of President-Elect and will be shadowing me throughout the year. Peter Kotowski will be taking over for Jessica Szadziewicz as Vice President and Keli Jonas has agreed to become our new Programming Chair. Special thanks to Jessica for all of her work throughout her tenure with Apra-IL. We look forward to having you as a board advisor and active member. Thank you all for your participation in voting in our new board members! See below for more details about our new teammates.

As President, I am very proud of the work done by our chapter and its members and I hope to have the chance to meet you all this year at our events. The calendar for 2018 is always available on our website, so take this opportunity to browse and plan what you’d like to attend. The first event of the year will be in February for APRA International’s Share the Knowledge Week. Apra-IL will be hosting a webinar during this time frame along with our webinar partners Apra-MN, Apra-MidSouth, and Apra-Great Plains. More information will be available on the event’s page in January. I am looking forward to the coming year with Apra-IL and I hope you are, too!

2017 has been quite a year! We accomplished a lot as a chapter and it’s important to take a moment to note the hard work of our volunteers. I want tothankour chapter members who volunteered their time and talent this year, especially those members who served as speakers at our Spring Symposium in May and for our quarterly webinars. In addition to the formal educational programming that we provided, we were able to have a lot of fun! We hope you were able to join us at our SPiN ping pong night, attended the field trip to the Chicago Botanic Gardens, or lingered at one of our numerous happy hours/salons, and gathered in Anaheim, CA during the annual Prospect Development Conference for breakfast.

We look forward to continuing to provide our members with great events and opportunities in 2018!

In an effort to be more collaborative and diverse in our programming, we have continued to expand our webinar offerings.Currently, we are partnered with Apra-MN and Apra-MidSouth in a license to use GoToWebinar to provide webinars to all of our members free or at member pricing. Last month we extended an offer to Apra-Great Plains to join our license to provide another source of expertise and content. As a part of our agreement, each chapter will be responsible for hosting one webinar a quarter, thus reducing the strain of programming on each of our respective chapters. This is a great opportunity for us and I am very excited to be broadening our educational reach through webinars.

We also plan to expand our reach downstate. The board is currently exploring ways to live stream our educational programming and provide satellite locations to make attendance and participation easier for those who can’t make it to the physical event. More details to come on this via our monthly e-mail. Stay tuned!

I want to thank you again for supporting your local Apra chapter through attending an event, volunteering to speak, and/or responding to our requests for ideas. We appreciate you and hope to continue to provide excellent professional development through 2018.